| Dear
John Jay Students and Parents:
Please prepare for your English Honors (Pre-AP)/AP
course for next year (2008-2009) by obtaining and reading
the designated summer reading. You should read the assigned text
before the class begins; Honors
(Pre-AP) or AP students should prepare for early coverage and activities.
You may have a test by the third week of your class, and
you will be expected to complete a dialectical/response notebook
with entries per chapter as noted on the Dialectical Notes link (with each entry including
chapter and page number, a copied detail of at least a sentence,
and a specific analytical response of at least a sentence). This excludes the incoming freshmen who will have to complete the 50-question assignment listed below; use COMPLETE sentences for all answers.
The dialectical/response notebook will be a major grade.
A sample dialectical /response is located below.
Click the link at the end of this sentence for an explanation on doing a dialectical/response
notebook.
English Honors (Pre-AP) students should have the following required
texts:
English I H (Pre-AP): To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Incoming freshmen need to have read and completed the 50-question handout during the summer. (To download the PDF attachment click here.).
English II H (Pre-AP): Lord of the Flies
by William Golding
English III AP: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
English IV AP: 1984 by George
Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Seniors need to have read the novels and completed the annotation assignment during the summer. (To download the PDF attachment click here.)
All students, within each grade level, should be prepared to cover these works at an intense pace.
Note key quotes and passages by highlighting your personal
copy and by keeping a dialectical/response notebook of your
reading (with page number of detail, the copied sentences/details
of reading, and an analytical response). For the proper way to accomplish the Dialectical Notes, view the instructions on this Webpage.
Have a great summer and a great upcoming year at John Jay!
Sincerely,
Michael Lipscomb
English Department Coordinator
|
Dialectical notes are a form of dialogue between ourselves and a piece of literature. In them, we note particular passages or events occurring in the piece and comment thoughtfully on them, therefore learning more about the literature.
ASSIGNMENT: All responses must be in complete sentences and each entry should take at least ONE page to complete. Your dialectical notes should address all of the following components:
• BRIEF Summary — a quick reference to the event you are referring to in your analysis
• Evaluation — your opinion of the event and characters’ behavior; should be an “I think…” statement that you must back up with a “because…” statement
• Connection — an experience from an outside source (your life, other literature, world events, movies, music, etc.) which relates to your text selection
• Analysis — identify ONE (1) literary device (conflict, characterization, foreshadowing, imagery, irony, metaphor, symbolism, theme, voice…) used in the text selection AND how it applies to the literature
Structural Note: With each entry be sure to include the page number where your “text inspiration” may be found. Also, bullet each of the four entry components for clarity and ease in grading.
Example: Based on “My Name” by Sandra Cisneros
*WETHER HANDWRITTEN OR TYPED, YOUR ASSIGNMENT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS!*
TEXT |
MY RESPONSE |
“I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees.” (11) |
- Summary – Esperanza feels like her name binds her to a certain future and wants to choose a name of her own.
- Evaluation – I appreciate that the narrator, at such a young age, realizes that the names we are given can be very different from the names we choose. I think Esperanza in a deep thinker and mature for her age due to this observation.
- Connection – I would connect this to Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”—the main character, Joy, changes her name to Hulga so that her outside matches her inside. It parallels Cisneros’ ideas as well as the humor. This piece would work well as a paired reading with “Good Country People”.
- Analysis – Cisneros uses the religious imagery of baptism to convey the significance of such a name change. Esperanza wants to wash herself clean of the baggage attached to her name and begin her life anew with a name free of the sins of her ancestors, just as the act of baptism washes one free from sins towards God and man.
|
|
